by Samantha Pratt-Tyler

Created on: September 16, 2008

Factory Farming and the Environmental Affects

Factory farms have all but taken over the small farms, and the way they do business is totally different from what small farms do.

Factory farming is about getting the most animals producing meat, milk, eggs, etc., in the least amount of space. Living in such cramped quarters is very unhealthy for the animals as well as us humans and our environment.

All animals produce manure, it smells, adds to the ozone load in the air and it also ends up in lakes, rivers and streams. The byproduct of which is polluted water but also Ecoli that ends up in our foods if that run off ends up on farms producing vegetables.

To keep these animals healthy in these unsanitized conditions, the farmers use pesticides, and antibiotics to keep the animals healthy. Pesticides are not good under any condition for the environment and for a lot of people they cause breathing problems. Pesticides get in the soil and kill and destroy the soil properties. Antibiotics, makes it way into our bodies, because what the animals consume we will consume with it. So, these things are also going to be found in the manure that floats down river. These things in the water are causing diseased fish and their deaths.

Eighty percent of the farm land in the United States is used to farm animals and grow the grain to feed them; not to mention the incredible amount of water that is needed for both the farm and the animals.

That is an incredible amount of food going to feed animals which we end up eating. But while the amount seems staggering so is the totals of food borne illness that these animals pass unto to humans. It has been estimated that one in every four heads of cattle will have Ecoli when brought to the slaughter house.

"A Consumer Reports study of 525 supermarket chickens found campylobacter in 81 percent of them and salmonella in 15 percent, with up to 84 percent of the bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Eggs pose a salmonella threat to one out of every 50 people each year. In total, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 76 million instances of foodborne illness each year and more than 5,000 deaths."

These living conditions for animals and the cost of what it is doing to us and to our environment are not exceptable. We should be contacting our Congressional leaders and Senators about this and see what can be done to keep us safe from the effects of factory farming.

We should be able to eat food healthy for

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